ciated, in
astronomical circles, with the sun. A divine figure is often composite,
the product of the coalescence of several orders of ideas. In general it
may be said that the simplest and least socially refined function of a
god is likely to indicate his original character. We must go behind the
conceptions of cultivated times to the hints given in popular
observances and poetry.

+862+. _Interpretation of myths._ For savage and half-civilized
communities, and for the masses in civilized times, the stories of the
achievements and adventures of gods, heroes, and ancestors, accepted as
history, have been and are sources of enjoyment and of intellectual
impulse. Narrated by fathers to their families, and recited or sung by
professional orators and poets to groups and crowds throughout the
land,[1500] they have been expanded and handed down from generation to
generation, receiving from every generation the coloring of its
experiences and ideas, and in the course of time have taken literary
shape under the hands of men of genius, and have been committed to
writing. For the early times they not only formed a body of historical
literature, but also, since they described relations between men and
gods, came to be somewhat vague yet real sacred scriptures of the
people.[1501] As such, being regarded simply as statements of facts,
they needed no outside interpretation; and being molded by human
experience, they carried with them such moral and religious instruction
as grew naturally out of the situations described. A more highly
cultivated age, dissatisfied with bald facts, desired to find in the
stories the wisdom of the fathers, and the imagination of poets and
philosophers was long occupied with discovering and expounding their
deeper meanings till further research set aside such attempts as
useless. The treatment of mythical material thus shows three stadia: the
acceptance of myths as genuine history; esoteric explanations of their
assumed profound teachings; and finally, return to their original
character as primitive science, having their origin in crude conceptions
of life. A brief sketch may show how the interpretation of myths has
come to be regarded as an historical and sociological science.

+863+. _Ancient interpretations of myths._ When the progress of thought,
especially in Greece, made it impossible to accept the current beliefs
concerning gods and their doings, it was felt necessary to put some
higher meaning